Le Projet Thonet

The Thonet Project is an exploration of replacement seat solutions by six young designers for six No.14 bentwood chairs to mark the 150th anniversary of Thonet’s design. Markus kayser and fellow students Amos Field Reid, Steve Clutton, Jess Corteen and Rentaro Nishimura formed a group alongside their lecturer, the designer William Warren and set out to explore replacement seat solutions to six Thonet chairs without seats.

The underlying thinking was that this situation was potentially echoed around the world: there are several hundred million Thonet bentwoods thought to be in existence but how many are out of service simply because their seats are missing? Everyone found a different solution to fill the void in this classic chair. Kayser created a concave mirror surface, as if the void was never filled while still bringing back the functionality of the chair.